Event statistics following the fourth race of the 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the 20-turn, 6.003-kilometer Baku City Circuit.
Lewis Hamilton inherited the race lead with three laps remaining after teammate Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas ran over a piece of debris and suffered a puncture, and led the rest of the way for his 63rd career Formula 1 victory and the first of the 2018 season. Kimi Raikkonen finished second, with Sergio Perez taking his first podium since 2016.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Baku City Circuit – Baku, Azerbaijan
- Winner (starting position): Lewis Hamilton (2nd)
- Podium: Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Sergio Perez
- Full Results: Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Sergio Perez, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll, Stoffel Vandoorne, Brendon Hartley, Marcus Ericsson, Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas, Romain Grosjean, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Sergey Sirotkin
- Laps Completed: 51
- Race Leaders: 3
- Laps Led: Sebastian Vettel (30), Valtteri Bottas (18), Lewis Hamilton (3)
- Pole Position: Sebastian Vettel (1 minute, 41.498 seconds)
- Hard Charger: Brendon Hartley (+9; 19th to 10th)
- Fastest Lap: Valtteri Bottas (1 minute, 45.149 seconds, 205.525 kph, Lap 37)
- Margin of Victory: 2.460 seconds
- Car Count: 20
- Cars Entered: 20
- Cars Running at Finish: 13 (of 20; or 65 percent of the field)
- Drivers to Finish on Lead Lap: 13
- Average Speed: 177.012 kph/109.990 mph
- Lead Changes: 2
- Race Time: 1:43:44.290
Notes of Interest – Race/Weekend Recap
- This is Lewis Hamilton’s first Formula 1 victory of the season and the 63rd of his career. It marks the first race win for Hamilton since the 2017 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
- Hamilton is the third driver to win a Formula 1 race this season. Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo have also won races, with Vettel the only driver to win on multiple occasions.
- Hamilton’s victory came 2.460 seconds over Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton passed teammate Valtteri Bottas with three laps remaining, after Bottas’s car suffered a punctured tire after running over debris. This marks the fewest laps Hamilton has ever led in a grand prix in which he won (three laps; previous low mark was six in the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai). Hamilton has led three races this season.
- Hamilton is the second driver to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, joining Daniel Ricciardo, who won the inaugural race in 2017. The two join Nico Rosberg as drivers who have won on the Baku Street Circuit; Rosberg won at the facility when it hosted the 2016 European Grand Prix.
- This is the 12th consecutive season and 12th overall that Hamilton has won at least once in Formula 1. He also won one race in 2013, the fewest he’s won in any season of his career.
- Hamilton is the first British and first European driver to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
- This is Hamilton’s third podium of 2018 and the 120th of his career. Hamilton averages 10 podiums per season; he’s earned more than half of his podiums (63) since the start of the 2014 season (83 races, good enough for a 75.9 percent of the time).
- This is Hamilton’s first podium in Baku. His previous best finish was fifth on two occasions.
- Hamilton has now won races at 25 tracks, and in 22 different grand prix.
- This is the second consecutive Azerbaijan Grand Prix in which Hamilton has led. He led a race-high 30 laps in the 2017 race before contact with Sebastian Vettel forced time in the pits. He eventually finished fifth.
- Hamilton, at 33 years of age, is the oldest driver to win a Formula 1 grand prix this season and the oldest driver to win a race at Baku City Circuit.
- Hamilton won the race from the second starting position, the 16th time he’s won an F1 race from second, and the 56th time he’s won an F1 grand prix from the front row (only seven races have been won from behind the front row, with a worst start of sixth in the 2014 British Grand Prix at Silverstone).
- Hamilton’s win from the second starting position marks the best a driver has started from and won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and the second best starting position a driver has won from at the Baku City Circuit (Nico Rosberg won the 2016 European Grand Prix at Baku from the pole).
- Hamilton is the first driver to win an F1 grand prix from the second starting position this season, and the first since Sebastian Vettel won the 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.
- This is Hamilton’s 42nd victory with Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport. His first 21 wins came with McLaren.
- This marks Mercedes’s first victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the second at Baku.
- There were three leaders of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, matching the number set in the inaugural event in 2017. However, Nico Rosberg led all 51 laps of the 2016 European Grand Prix at Baku.
- This marked the second consecutive Azerbaijan Grand Prix in which the driver who led the most laps did not win the race. Ironically, Lewis Hamilton led 30 laps of the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but failed to win. The leader totals of 30, 18 and three laps led by three drivers in the 2018 race mirrored the 2017 totals exactly, albeit by different drivers.
- With the victory, Hamilton moved into the points lead for the first time this season. He owns an average finish this season of 2.5, the best among all drivers.
- Kimi Raikkonen rebounded from involvement in a first-lap incident to finish second, earning his third podium of the season (every race he’s finished this season he’s finished on the podium) and 94th of his career. Raikkonen was looking give Finland the 50th F1 victory for the country.
- Raikkonen added a fifth podium finish for Finland this season, the highest for any country in Formula 1.
- This is Raikkonen’s best finish at Baku. He was fourth in the 2016 European Grand Prix.
- Sergio Perez finished a season-best third, his first podium since the 2016 European Grand Prix (also at Baku) and the eighth of his career (and fifth with Force India). It also marked Perez’s first points finish of 2018, he last coming in the 2017 season finale at Abu Dhabi.
- Polesitter Sebastian Vettel finished fourth, after leading the most laps for the second consecutive race. Vettel had tried to pass Valtteri Bottas for the lead during a late restart but ran wide and dropped as low as fifth, however, moved up after Bottas suffered his puncture.
- Vettel now has 53 career pole positions. This is Vettel’s first pole at Baku.
- Vettel dropped to second in the points standings, despite averaging a 3.5 finish in the first four races.
- Carlos Sainz Jr. was fifth, a season-best and the third race of four this season in which he’s finished in the points. Sainz’s previous best finish was ninth in the Chinese Grand Prix.
- Charles Leclerc finished sixth, his first career points-paying finish. Leclerc is the first driver from Monaco to finish in the points in an F1 race since Louis Chiron finished third in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix (the second race ever on the Formula 1 World Championship circuit).
- Fernando Alonso finished seventh for the third consecutive race in 2018. Alonso has finished no worse than seventh this season; he only had one finish of sixth or better in 2017, and five top 10s (could match season total in home race in less than two weeks). Spain is the only country represented with two drivers in the top 10 (Sainz and Alonso).
- Lance Stroll finished a season-best eighth, his first points-paying finish of the season.
- Stoffel Vandoorne was ninth, in his third points-paying finish of 2018.
- Brendon Hartley scored his first career points-paying finish with a 10th-place effort.
- Kevin Magnussen was the final driver to complete the race, finishing 13th.
- Valtteri Bottas was classified as 14th, despite not finishing the race. He led 18 laps. It marked the second consecutive race Bottas led with 12 or fewer laps remaining and did not win the race.
- Romain Grosjean, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo and Sergey Sirotkin all earned their second DNF in four races this season, all due to accidents. A total of seven drivers failed to finish the race, the most DNFs in a race in 2018.
- Of the 14 drivers classified at the end of the race, 12 of those improved on their starting positions. Only Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas finished lower than they started.
- Esteban Ocon failed to finish a Formula 1 race was only the second time in 33 career races, following an incident on the first lap with Kimi Raikkonen. Both DNFs occurred as a result of first-lap incidents.
- Four drivers earned their first points finishes of the season Sunday, and 18 of the 20 drivers that have competed this season have earned points. The only two drivers that have failed to earn points are Romain Grosjean and Sergey Sirotkin.
- The Baku City Circuit, at 6.003 kilometers, is the second longest on the Formula 1 schedule, behind Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (7.004 kilometers).
- The next round of the 2018 Formula 1 World Championship is the Spanish Grand Prix on May 13 at Circuit de Catalunya.
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